Polly – bleepin’ – anna

Ok. Let’s get a few things straight.

I’m not really a girly girl. the only barbie I ever had as a kid i cut its hair off, marked her face up with a black sharpie, and hung her from my ceiling fan and used her as the light pull thingy. I literally had allergic reactions to the pink dress my mother demanded coerced forced me to wear. And cheesy platitudes about life put on a poster with sunflowers or kittens or children dressed up in too-big clothing or dressed up as vegetables or floral arrangements annoy the living snot out of me.

A

challenge this week about how do you stay positive in the face of something that sometimes brings you down had this quote from Helen Keller as its lead-in:

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.

And of course, my first thought was to explore how (or rather IF) I am actually able to maintain a positive outlook in spite of some of what we deal with here sometimes. Because sometimes I know I don’t.

But then I thought – let’s just hold the phone here for a second. Helen Keller was blind. I do not pretend to be an expert on her medical issues (although I AM an expert on many other medical issues! 😉 ), but even if we say she had SOME sight – ALL SHE COULD SEE WAS SHADOWS.

If she had her face to the sunshine, it would have blocked out any shred of anything she may have been able to see.

So really, I am just baffled now. And all verklempt. I don’t know WHAT to write about with regard to how I stay positive. I keep getting distracted by trying to figure out what the heck HK meant. Was it just part of a feel-good speech she gave to a bunch of spoiled college students? Was it really how she learned how to see? I have no idea. and while I would love to get sidetracked into google-land trying to figure it out, I do actually have a LOT of other important things to do. Like make sure my children are clothed and lunched up before sending them out the door to freeze at the bus stop. Or finish “mystery project involving drywall spackle and saltwater drinks” this week.

And this is why I should not drink coffee (or spray paint things without opening the door) after 3 pm. My brain is in about 9023 places, not a single one of them leading to any kind of coherent or reading worthy thought. It could also be the cold. I can’t feel my toes at the moment. This apparently makes me incapable of staying on track. Wait, did I have a track?

I think I did.

The point being – we all need more feel-good posters hung up in our bedrooms, reminding us to keep our faces to the sunshine (WEAR SUNSCREEN THOUGH!), enjoy the moments of life that take our breaths away, just breathe, don’t sweat the small stuff, and hang in there. It sure beats the one that would make more sense: Don’t bother getting out of bed. You will be in pain somewhere at some point today, something will go wrong with your car your job your health or your house, and you will more than likely wish you had just stayed in that nice warm bed at least 34 times before lunch.

Like I said – Polly-bleepin-anna.

But actually – I’m in a really good mood today. I just don’t have any good answers about how to face the sunshine. Cause sometimes there just isn’t any. It’s rainy or windy or freezing or all of the above and you just tuck your head into the wind and move forward. maybe that’s just what kind of weather I’m in right now. Just bunker down and survive. Deal with the aftermath of the storm after the storm.

And I’m takin’ Helen and her sunburnt face and my hairless tattooed up barbie doll with me.

But you can keep that fugly pink dress.

I’ll see you on the flip side.

with pictures of the SURPRISSSSSEEEE!!!!!

(and i promise – i really am in a GREAT mood! i just need some chips and french onion dip. good thing I have some in the fridge!)

It’s not always easy as Helen put it, especially when you have a lot of bad things happening to you at once, for a long period of time. I know you saw my blog, we both did the same prompt ,and without my little one there would be no sunshine at all for me.

I do love stuff that’s pink. Always have. Always will. Even though now, when I wear pink stuff, I look an awful lot like a pig. A girly pig, but still, a pig. I did mutilate one of my barbies though. Colored her red, ripped her clothes, cut her hair, dug a hole in my yard & buried her in it. I was playing “rape”. Not sure what that says about my mental state circa 1987, but it was fun. And, I’ve always wondered what the people who lived in that house afterward thought when their dog dug up my little silence of the lambs doll. Or my dad?! Maybe my dad found it? Wrapped it in newspaper and threw it away to keep my mom from the truth? Oh well, it’s out now! I’m crazy as a jay bird, and the world (the world does read my blog, right?!) knows it! Glad you came over to find out. Hope to see you round the Casa sometime soon. I promise not to make you place any lotion into a basket:)

oh it wasn’t cause it was blunt – it just takes forever for “new” people comments to show up! thanks for the headsup! I am still re-doing the site and the right coding might not be up. it should be in the middle column above the twitter/fb/flicker icons.
would love to have you follow along! thanks for the comment!

We just watched the Disney movie of Hellen Keller and her teacher. It was very, very lame but would give you some good bashing material.

Thanks for the laugh this morning Terra. I needed it. If it makes you feel any better, I have one child in time out for throwing a softball-sized bouncy ball at his sister’s head and then saying, “Turn around – I need to get a shot at the front.”

Maybe I’ll have Paigey sing her “weather song” for the camera and post it on FB for you. Then you can choose your weather and put it on the calendar of your life.

Wow!! How have I only just found your blog? Crazy! Very interesting stuff!

Oh by the way I got your comment on my blog! Thank you! We have tried many many drugs for the autonomic system for the gut without success. They won’t give her anything for the heart because she has such a low heart rate the only way to get it to go faster is a pacemaker which they don’t want to do because they don’t think she will survive that surgery. Anyway its frustrating.

That post was just what I needed. I have been struggling the past couple of days. I need to look towards the sunshine!

Stumbled onto your blog via Mama Kat. LOVVEE the sarcasm and wit, and I love even more that you hate pink and dont write about roses and hunky dory…Cause it aint always roses and hunky dory, sometimes it’s sarcastic and quirky….a little sunshine is good, but too much and you get burnt bring on the shade 🙂 I’ll be back your a hoot!